Over 50 Years of
Exploration &
Innovation

Introducing The North Face at 50

To some, we’ve been part of your lives for decades – since the
Grateful Dead played our opening night in ‘66 or Scot Schmidt
transported us into the era of extreme skiing in the 80’s. For others,
we’ve only just met. To all, new and old, novice and expert, we
believe we are more than a collection of fabrics and zippers. We are a
global movement that celebrates, encourages and enables exploration.
We know it is more than putting one foot in front of the other.
Exploration transforms the soul. It is social, creative and
intellectual. It happens on the rock or the street. We exist to
inspire you to explore.

This year we turn 50. To understand who we are today, first look to
our past. Doug Tompkins believed that to feed your soul, you must
embrace the wild. So he co-founded The North Face to prepare both
those taking their “first halting steps toward a new enjoyment of the
outdoors... [and] to others, of more experience, The North Face will
perhaps present the logical culmination of years of searching for the
finest in alpine equipment.”

From our infancy as a single store front, to our rise as a global
year-round brand, we’ve remained focused on practicality and the
spirit of adventure with a single mission in mind – get outside and
never stop exploring. We’re an out of bounds brand. We have no foul
lines or end zones. Whether through gear, expeditions or access, we
have enabled generations of explorers to connect with the outdoors.
The passion for exploring and dedication to preservation that our
leaders poured into a small thriving business remains the bedrock of
our company’s culture today.

After all these years, we still call the Bay Area of California our
home. We’re in the center of everything that we love – we can hike in
Marin, climb in Yosemite, ski in Tahoe, and run by the Pacific Ocean –
all within minutes to a few hours of our headquarters. We are also at
the center of technological innovation and have been the privy witness
to decades of societal change. This environment and these experiences
become part of all that we create and stand for.

To ensure we continue to have places to explore, we believe it is
our fundamental responsibility to preserve the outdoors. From
investing in conservation to making our products and processes
sustainable, we are committed to the highest level of environmental
and social duty. We cannot do this alone. We partner with hundreds of
organizations whose vision matches our own, motivating explorers to
become stewards of our natural world. We also need the help of the
rising generation. If a child falls in love with the outdoors today,
nature has gained a guardian for decades.

As we look forward, we will stay focused on our ultimate promise: to
equip you to push your limits and feed your soul. Our commitment for
the next 50 years and beyond is to inspire people to live a life of exploration.

Never Stop Exploring,

Todd Spaletto, President, The North Face

Our Story: Behind The Brand

We are named for the coldest, most unforgiving side of a mountain.
We have helped explorers reach the most unfathomable heights of the
Himalayas. But The North Face® legend begins, ironically, on a beach.
More precisely, San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, at an
altitude of only 150 feet above sea level. It was here in 1966 that
two hiking enthusiasts resolved to follow their passions and founded a
small mountaineering retail store. From the beginning, the brand
committed to serving all those who desired to explore and to serving
our natural wild lands by helping to conserve them. At our core, we
believe exploration creates an indelible bond with the outdoors,
inspiring people to protect our land and pass these beliefs down to
the next generation.

Soon thereafter, that little shop became known as The North Face, a
retailer of high-performance climbing and backpacking equipment. In
1968, The North Face moved to the other side of San Francisco Bay, to
the unbridled possibilities of the Berkeley area, and began designing
and manufacturing its own brand of technical mountaineering apparel
and equipment.

Through the 1960s, The North Face brand cherished a following
amongst avid outdoor athletes and began sponsoring expeditions to some
of the most far-flung, still largely untouched corners of the globe.
This launched a proud tradition which continues in full force today
and constantly reinforces The North Face mantra, Never Stop Exploring™.

By the early 1980s, The North Face was taking exploration to the
outer limits of the ski world, adding extreme skiwear to the product
offering. These were the days of pastels, neons, hair dye, and
mohawks; they laid the groundwork for today's free-spirited snowsports
athletes. By the end of the decade, The North Face became the only
supplier in the United States to offer a comprehensive collection of
high-performance outerwear, skiwear, sleeping bags, packs and
tents.

The 1990s ushered in an era during which The North Face further
broadened the outdoor world it helps athletes to explore. The decade
saw our debut in the sportswear market with the launch of Tekware™, an
innovative collection designed to provide rock climbers, backpackers,
hikers, trail runners, and outdoor enthusiasts with the ultimate fit
and function. The North Face half dome logo began to appear with
greater regularity on ultramarathon courses, high-country trails, and
big walls. And, as the calendar clicked toward a new millennium, The
North Face launched its own line of trekking and trail-running shoes
to ultimately address the head-to-toe needs of those always striving
for the next horizon.

While the brand continued to shape the outdoor market through
product, expedition and athlete achievements, it launched two game
changing product lines – Thermoball and Fuseform. Thermoball
introduced synthetic insulation mimicking the capability of down.
Fuseform revolutionized the manufacturing space as it changed the way
technical apparel is produced.

Now, more than 50 years after its humble grand opening, The North
Face delivers an extensive line of performance apparel, equipment, and
footwear. We push the boundaries of innovation so that you can push
the boundaries of exploration. We remain deeply proud to be the first
choice of the world's most accomplished climbers, mountaineers,
extreme skiers, snowboarders, endurance runners, and explorers.

There's little telling what the next 50 years hold for us. However,
there is one bedrock of certainty: The North Face will maintain an
unwavering commitment to pushing the limits of innovation and design,
so that you can push your limits outdoors. Never Stop Exploring.